Olympic silver medallist Lizzie Armitstead is to join 15 other Team GB London 2012 medal winners in a one-off revival of the 1970s TV show Superstars, which pits athletes from different sports against one another in a range of disciplines.

The programme is being aired at 6.45pm on Saturday 29 December, with eight men and eight women competing in eight events – the first seven being the 100 metres and 800 metres, javelin, 50 metre swim, archery, kayak race and a cycling hill climb.

The final event will be familiar to anyone who watched the show in its heyday – gym tests, including the infamous squat thrusts. Ouch.

The athletes taking part, and the medals they won in London this summer, are:

The BBC adds that Beijing double gold medallist Rebecca Adlington will “act as a mentor to all the athletes in the swimming event” though we’re guessing that breaststroker Michael Jamieson and triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee may politely decline the offer.

Superstars was developed by former Olympic figure skating champion Dick Button for the ABC network, first airing in 1973 and proved popular around the world during the 1970s and 1980s.

By the end of that year, the format had been picked up by the BBC, and other European networks followed, the programme regularly getting TV audiences of more than 10 million in the UK.

It made household names out of competitors such as Brian Jacks, Britain’ first judo world champion, and pole vaulter Brian Hooper, and gave rise to world and European championships.

The latter produced perhaps the most memorable moment in the event’s history from a British perspective when in a bike race during the 1976 series, then Liverpool player Kevin Keegan had a touch of wheels with fellow footballer Gilbert Van Binst after the Belgian took the inside line going into the bend.

Keegan didn’t seem too shaken by the crash, despite a post-race interviewer getting a bit too touchy-feely on his rather nasty looking road rash – good luck to anyone trying that technique on Mark Cavendish when he’s just come off the bike hard, by the way.

Brian Jacks lived near where I was living at in mid-1980s, he had two bungalows knocked into one IIRC.

Sometimes used to see him on local golf course, he had a totally pro looking bag complete with his name emblazoned on it just in case anyone didn't recognise him, which I always thought was taking the piss a bit.

My wife had her photo taken with Brian Jacks when she was 12. Then when she was 16 - Steve Norman from Spandau Ballet - who never appeared in Super Stars...or, as far as I know, owned a bungalow. I'll get my coat.